Deja Woo-Hoo

There are times when you reflect upon past experiences. The good, the bad, and the ugly. And then the moment comes where you ask yourself, "If I could do it all over again, what would I change?" Usually this is the part where you hypothesize different scenarios and endings- kind of like when you used to read Choose Your Adventure stories.

When you ended up eaten by zombies or your car battery dies causing you to fall off the cliff you would backpedal several pages to when you had to choose between picking the map over the box of matches.

Alas, my life has turned into a big Choose Your Adventure book.

Knowing how my first "real world" job turns out, I'm now going back a few pages to a chapter that has become familiar and secure.

At another crossroad in this wasteland known as post-grad, I find that this junction looks strangely familiar. Have I been at this fork in the road before?

Going back has been an even more interesting prospect than the first time. Armed with "experience" and no longer a rookie, I'm prepared and excited to see how I will follow through with my own answers to how "I would do Korea differently."

What WOULD I do differently you ask?

• Travel Asia: Not have my head up so far up my butt to completely ignore the proximity of Korea between, hmmm all of Southeast Asia? I was so amped on going to Europe that I disregarded the entire hemisphere while I was there...
• Shop more in Dongdaemun (it's a shame that I only really discovered this place a month or two before I was leaving)
• Make more Korean friends (although the Korean friends that I DID have rocked but it's like that Girl Scout song, silver and gold, ya know?
• Use the time on weeknights to be productive.... At SOMETHING. I don't want to just come home and be bored like I was after the "honeymoon period" ended. Whether it be a yoga class or a language exchange, something. I spent way too much time watching On Style's reruns of America's Next Top Model.
• See more of Korea. Yes I plan on returning to Boryang's Mud Fest, and I would love to go to Seoraksan one more time, but I'd like to go to Busan, see the proper DMZ (and not just the amusement park version), maybe "camp" out in the countryside- and I use camp very VERY loosely as I don't mean "roughing it" in a tent somewhere. But I'll have plenty of three day weekends or even regular weekends that I can venture out of Seoul more than I did last time.

So with that being said, I will be documenting my Korea 2.0 sojourn on this here blog and would love for you to take a passenger seat to this adventure. Those that are going to be in Seoul with me, I will let you know now that your identity will not be kept secret or protected so swim at your own risk. For those that will be "back home" I would love to hear from you so don't be a stranger. Perhaps you can give some feedback and input in this real life, Choose Your Own Adventure.

Every so often, I will present you with a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style choice. It could be as simple as "what Korean food would you like to see Casey try?" or "Where should Casey go for her summer vacation?" and I'll go with what you, Dear Reader, will suggest. I would say this could be a weekly thing, but I'm not sure if I'm creative enough to come up with 52 weeks worth of Choose Your Own Adventure choices... But heck I'll try to make them up as much as possible and will also provide photo documentation as evidence! Deal?

Alright departure date looks like April 27- a little less than 3 weeks... Get ready!